http://trs.sagepub.com/site/includefiles/Transfer_CfP_digital_economy.pdf

Call for contributions to the special issue of Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research

The digital economy and its implications for labour

Edited by Maria Jepsen & Jan Drahokoupil

The themed issue addresses the implications of the digital economy on jobs, distribution of productivity gains, the dynamics of job destruction and job creation, and in particular the possible recast of the labour market in the light of the ‘gig’ or ‘sharing’ economy. The research on labour aspects of digitalization is growing rapidly but its findings are by no means unequivocal. Many are predicting a transformative change in the global distribution of jobs and wealth as well as with regard to what jobs will exist. However, the research looking at the place and role of trade unions is embryonic at best. This special issue aims at clarifying what a future labour market might look like and what policy choices are crucial in shaping the outcomes.

We thus encourage submission of proposals for contributions that address a wide range of issues related to labour implications of digitalization. At the same time, we are actively seeking papers that address the following questions and themes:

· Is this time different? Assessment of the specificity of the fourth industrial revolution in comparison with the previous ones

· Who is going to end up unemployed? The evolution of demand for skills and tasks on European labour markets

· What are the lessons from the new economy champions? Case studies of multinational companies such as Amazon that ride the digitalization wave while exploiting the diversity in labour markets and industrial relations in Europe

· How to make the welfare states and labour-market regulation fit for purpose? The future of insurance systems in the era of gig employment, the role of basic income schemes and other policy responses

· Are we all going to end up self-employed? The extent to which the platforms are transforming labour markets and their potential to undermine employment relations

· Can technology give trade unions a new life line? Existing strategies of trade unions in using the new technology, possibilities that the technology offers to trade unions, the digital era as an opportunity for trade unions to forge a new role in societies, organizing self-employed workers

· Is this the end of manufacturing and global supply chains? Shift from manufacturing and supplier relations to services and 3D printing, shift from trade in goods to trade in information, trends in re-shoring, production relocation

Proposals for contributions including abstracts of 400 words should be sent to the Editor of Transfer Maria Jepsen ([log in to unmask]) before 1 March 2016. Full manuscripts will be due by 7 July 2016. The articles will be subject to double-blind peer-review before being accepted for publication. In general, comparative articles will be preferred.

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